Lorcana TCG

Today's review is of the 2023 release, Lorcana Trading Card Game. For 2-6 players, this collectible game takes 20+ minutes.

Overview

You are an Illumineer, charged with gathering lore. To do so, you will need to wisely build your deck, wield magical ink to deploy characters, items, locations, and use action or song cards. The first to 20 lore wins!

Cards have one of six ink types in Lorcana. These types do not matter during game play, but affect deck construction: you can have cards of only up to two different ink types in your deck.

A Lorcana turn is straightforward. After setup (shuffling your decks and drawing 7 cards), the first player takes a turn (minus drawing a card), and play continues clockwise thereafter.

Each turn has two phases:

- Beginning Phase: Ready your exerted characters/ink, Set (check for effects that happen now), and Draw (draw a card)

- Main Phase: you may put one eligible card* in your hand  facedown into your inkwell, or play cards (pay their cost by exerting that much ink), use item/location/character abilities, quest** or challenge***, and more! Note: characters cannot quest, challenge, or use abilities that require exerting (tapping) the turn they come into play.

*an eligible card is any card in your hand that has an inkwell icon around its cost. In the below examples, Captain Hook can be played as an inkwell card but Simba cannot. Once a card is played in the inkwell, it cannot be used as anything other than ink.

**a character can quest by exerting. When it does, you gain lore equal to the value printed on the card. In the above examples, Captain Hook gains one lore by questing but Simba gains three.

***a character can challenge one of your opponents' exerted characters (that's important). To do so, exert your character and announce the target character. Each deals damage equal to its power (first number to the right of the name) to the other, in the form of -1 counters. If the counters exceed its defense (second number), it is banished (discarded).

For more information, see the quick start rules, these how to play videos, or the comprehensive rules from the official site.

Review

I was excited to find some starter decks on discount, as this game has proven popular and highly regarded since its release last year. This is a solid, if simple, offering. What I liked:

- that color only matters in deck construction; once the game begins, your ink can be used to pay any cost.

- the inkwell concept: using cards from your hand facedown as a resource is not new, but having only certain cards be eligible is. Generally, the most powerful cards cannot be used as resources, so it forces smart deck construction and balanced power levels.

- being able to challenge only exerted characters. That forces interesting choices on your turn: do you exert a character and expose it to potential attacks next turn? Or keep it safe?

- the theme of gathering lore and telling stories.

- the art and familiar characters.

I was underwhelmed by:

- its similarity to Magic: the Gathering. It is a simplified form with the aforementioned twists.

- the inability to play cards or use abilities on your opponents' turn (in Magic parlance, play instants). That reduced the interaction. It is possible to play this game with no interaction at all, and just race to 20 lore.

- how elements from the same Disney movie were distributed across colors. There seems to be little rhyme or reason here; you can have the villains team up with the good guys and really do anything you want. You can create a thematic consistency ("I want a Robin Hood deck"), but it's really anything goes. And that's both cool and weird.

In the end, I enjoyed playing this, and may make a few cheap thematic decks. But I doubt this will hit my table often; nor do I plan to collect it.

Rating: A-